Digitization TCN: Collaborative Research: Enhancing Access to Taxonomic and Biogeographical Data to Stem the Tide of Extinction of the Highly Imperiled Pacific Island Land Snails

数字化 TCN：合作研究：加强对分类学和生物地理数据的获取，以阻止高度濒危的太平洋岛屿蜗牛的灭绝浪潮

• 批准号: 1902119
• 负责人: Diarmaid O'Foighil
• 金额: $ 5.48万
• 依托单位: Regents of the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-08-01 至 2024-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1902119&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Digitization; TCN; Collaborative; Research; Enhancing

Biodiversity is declining globally and any effective actions to halt or slow extinctions requires precise knowledge of species identities and distributions. Natural history collections are critical to fully understanding historical and contemporary biodiversity patterns, yet most of the museum specimens and their associated data remain inaccessible without directly visiting the museum collection, and even then, only to a select few. Digitizing these data and making it more broadly available electronically will facilitate biodiversity conservation efforts. Land snails, with approximately 25,000 species globally, are a major component of terrestrial habitats and provide services crucial for maintaining intact and fully functional ecosystems. Unfortunately, land snails have the highest number of documented extinctions of any major animal group, with the greatest losses among Pacific islands. Conservation assessments and identification of the remaining fauna are hampered because a large portion of this fauna has not been comprehensively studied for more than 100 years. Increased understanding of threatened biodiversity should be a national priority, particularly given the current biodiversity crisis. One goal of this project is to develop a comprehensive data resource (the Pacific Island Land Snail Biodiversity Repository; PILSBRY) to provide information needed to identify and assess the distributions and conservation status of Pacific island land snails. Researchers from five of the largest natural history collections in the nation will be joining forces to build an educational program to train and engage the science community, students, and citizen scientists to aid them in the digitization, mobilization, and enhancement of 3.6 million Pacific island land snail specimen records. This project will increase capacity of experts to support tropical island biodiversity research and conservation and accelerate species discovery. Participants of this project, including the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, Academy of Natural Sciences at Drexel, Museum of Zoology at the University of Michigan, Harvard Museum of Natural History, Florida Museum of Natural History, and the Field Museum, will digitize and mobilize data for 3.6 million specimens of Pacific island land snails held in these collections. These data, enhanced through georeferencing and imaging of primary types, will be made available to the public and science community via a centralized online database and integrated into multiple public data repositories, including iDigBio (idigbio.org), which is supported by the NSF's ADBC program. High school and undergraduate students from underrepresented groups in STEM will receive training in data management, bioinformatics, taxonomy and museum curation and will contribute to formal (e.g. conference presentations and publications) and informal (e.g. exhibits, social media and blogs) educational activities to improve their science communication skills and connect research to the science community and public. Additionally, citizen scientists will be able to assist in enhancing specimen records by transcribing data from scanned ledgers, field notes, and other associated data through online portals. Eventually additional web-based tools and smart phone applications can be developed for conservation managers, researchers, citizen scientists and the public to access Pacific Island land snail specimen records to further research and conservation management of this highly endangered fauna.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

全球生物多样性正在下降，任何阻止或减缓灭绝的有效行动都需要准确了解物种特性和分布。 自然历史藏品对于充分了解历史和当代生物多样性模式至关重要，但如果不直接参观博物馆藏品，大多数博物馆标本及其相关数据仍然无法访问，即使如此，也只有少数人能够访问。 将这些数据数字化并以电子方式更广泛地提供这些数据将促进生物多样性保护工作。 陆地蜗牛在全球约有 25,000 种物种，是陆地栖息地的主要组成部分，为维持完整且功能齐全的生态系统提供至关重要的服务。 不幸的是，陆地蜗牛是所有主要动物类群中记录灭绝数量最多的，在太平洋岛屿中损失最大。 对剩余动物群的保护评估和鉴定受到阻碍，因为这些动物群的很大一部分在 100 多年来都没有得到全面研究。 加强对受威胁生物多样性的了解应成为国家优先事项，特别是考虑到当前的生物多样性危机。 该项目的目标之一是开发综合数据资源（太平洋岛屿蜗牛生物多样性存储库；PILSBRY），以提供识别和评估太平洋岛屿蜗牛的分布和保护状况所需的信息。 来自美国五个最大的自然历史收藏馆的研究人员将联手制定一项教育计划，以培训和吸引科学界、学生和公民科学家，帮助他们对 360 万个太平洋岛屿进行数字化、动员和增强陆地蜗牛标本记录。 该项目将提高专家支持热带岛屿生物多样性研究和保护的能力，并加速物种发现。 该项目的参与者，包括 Bernice Pauahi Bishop 博物馆、德雷克塞尔自然科学院、密歇根大学动物博物馆、哈佛大学自然历史博物馆、佛罗里达自然历史博物馆和菲尔德博物馆，将数字化和移动数据这些馆藏中保存着 360 万件太平洋岛屿陆地蜗牛标本。 这些数据通过主要类型的地理配准和成像得到增强，将通过集中式在线数据库向公众和科学界提供，并集成到多个公共数据存储库中，包括由 NSF 的 ADBC 支持的 iDigBio (idigbio.org)程序。 来自 STEM 中代表性不足群体的高中生和本科生将接受数据管理、生物信息学、分类学和博物馆策展方面的培训，并将为正式（例如会议演讲和出版物）和非正式（例如展览、社交媒体和博客）教育活动做出贡献，以改善他们的科学传播技能并将研究与科学界和公众联系起来。 此外，公民科学家将能够通过在线门户转录来自扫描分类账、现场记录和其他相关数据的数据，从而帮助增强标本记录。 最终，可以开发更多基于网络的工具和智能手机应用程序，供保护管理者、研究人员、公民科学家和公众访问太平洋岛屿陆地蜗牛标本记录，以进一步研究和保护管理这种高度濒临灭绝的动物群。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命通过使用基金会的智力优点和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，并被认为值得支持。